What are arps, saws, leads, pads etc.?

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iamauser

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i just got started with making music but i realised i have no clue what i'm doing, and while people have told me that's natural, i still feel i need to know a few basic things to actually understand and be able to communicate what i'm doing. one of the most common things i hear regarding music production are leads, arps, saws, pads, eq, reverb, cutoff etc.

could anyone tell me what any of those mean? or tell me any vocab i should know? or a link to a music glossary thing?
 
arp is short for arpeggio, which means playing the individual notes of chord one after another. In electronic music it has been extended to any repeated phrase whether a chord or scale (fragment or full). Most daws have the ability to auto-generate arpeggios using various patterns (up, down, random) and duration selection (8ths, 16ths, 8th triplet, 16th triplet, etc)

saw is a wave form also known as a ramp wave - because the profile looks like it moves from a low amplitude to a high amplitude as a straight line and then drops all the way back down to the low amplitude again

a lead is a melodic instrument that can have any sound attached to it

pads are used for providing chordal or single note background sounds

there are many posts on what eq is - think hi-fi system tone control but with way more control over the individual features

reverb short for reverberation the natural fast echoing of a room or an artificial device

cut-off is the value at which a filter (low-pass or high-pass or band-pass or band-notch or all-pass) begins to work

plenty of posts about filters here as well
 
bandcoach said:
arp is short for arpeggio, which means playing the individual notes of chord one after another. In electronic music it has been extended to any repeated phrase whether a chord or scale (fragment or full). Most daws have the ability to auto-generate arpeggios using various patterns (up, down, random) and duration selection (8ths, 16ths, 8th triplet, 16th triplet, etc)

saw is a wave form also known as a ramp wave - because the profile looks like it moves from a low amplitude to a high amplitude as a straight line and then drops all the way back down to the low amplitude again

a lead is a melodic instrument that can have any sound attached to it

pads are used for providing chordal or single note background sounds

there are many posts on what eq is - think hi-fi system tone control but with way more control over the individual features

reverb short for reverberation the natural fast echoing of a room or an artificial device

cut-off is the value at which a filter (low-pass or high-pass or band-pass or band-notch or all-pass) begins to work

plenty of posts about filters here as well
Click to expand...

thanks! where would i use a saw and arp?
 
Saw and Arp are synthesizer terms.

Saw or Sawtooth is one of the waveforms the oscillators in a synthesizer can usually produce. It has a very steep, snappy 'attack' so its sound is often quite 'buzzy'. (|\|\|\|\|\) This, combined with how it looks is a great reason to call it a 'saw' wave. A slightly different form would be the Triangle wave, which is like a saw but has a smooth ramp up and down and sounds more like a 'beep' than a 'buzz'. (/\/\/\/\/) I have seen synths use this in place of sine waves when they can't generate a smoother sine signal.

Arpeggiation is when a series of notes are played in an automatic pattern by a machine from static key input. This means if I hold down a C-E-G triad, it will probably play the notes in a sequence instead of a chord. On many arpeggiators you can either program or choose from a list of patterns it will play. The most common default patterns are Up(C,E,G,C,E,G,etc), Down(G,E,C,G,E,C,etc), Up+Down(C,E,G,E,C,E,G,E,etc), and As-Played(the order you press the notes in).

Cheers,

Rob
 
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IconDigitalUSA said:
Arpeggiation is when a series of notes are played in an automatic pattern by a machine from static key input.
Click to expand...

I guess that's how it's mostly used these days, but of course arpeggios can be played by hand just as well. It's not machine-performed by definition.
 
the classic examples of arpeggios are by Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk and were done with analogue sequencers....
 
The keyboardist from Rammstein and the one from Dream Theater also play arps.
 
A saw can also refer to a "Saw-synth", which is another word for a supersaw/hypersaw/polysaw-synth. Just search for it on youtube and you'll immediately recognize the sound.
 
just keep producing.. and really pay attention to shit.. most producers probably never asked this question.. you gain knowledge through experience.. and you;ll pick up on shit.. knowing what an arp/saw/pad is really not goikng to make you a better producer..
 
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